In 1540, England's King Henry VIII married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. (The marriage lasted about six months.)

In 1759, George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married in New Kent County, Va.

In 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail gave the first successful public demonstration of their telegraph, in Morristown, N.J.

In 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state.

In 1919, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age 60.

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined a goal of "Four Freedoms": Freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of people to worship God in their own way; freedom from want; freedom from fear.

In 1942, the Pan American Airways Pacific Clipper, a flying boat built by Boeing, arrived in New York more than a month after leaving California and following a westward route.

In 1945, George Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara Pierce in Rye, N.Y.

In 1950, Britain recognized the Communist government of China.

In 1963, "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" premiered on NBC-TV.

In 1982, truck driver William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of 10 of the "Freeway Killer" slayings of young men and boys. (Bonin was later convicted of four other killings; he was executed in 1996.)

Ten years ago: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein accused U.N. inspectors of engaging in "intelligence work" instead of searching for suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in his country. Thousands of Marines, sailors and soldiers headed for the Persian Gulf region, shipping out from California, Georgia and Maryland as the buildup for a war with Iraq accelerated sharply.

Five years ago: In a video posted on the Internet, al-Qaida's American-born spokesman, Adam Gadahn, urged fighters to meet President George W. Bush with bombs during his upcoming Mideast visit. Mikhail Saakashvili was declared winner of a second term as Georgia's president.

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One year ago: A bomb exploded at a busy Damascus intersection, killing 25 people and wounding dozens in the second major attack in the Syrian capital in as many weeks. The Obama administration expanded the FBI's more than eight-decades-old definition of rape to count men as victims for the first time and to drop the requirement that victims physically resisted their attackers. New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien agreed to become Penn State's new football coach.